Favorite Baseball Game Pre OOTP!

[goterps]

MicroLeague was the best way back in the day! I loved the one that would switch to actual b&w footage of old games during game play. I actually sent away and got all the old time disks and stadiums for the game. Funny thing is I bought the game for $9.99 in a dicount rack on a whim at Kay Bee Toys.

After that Ernie Harwell's Broadcast Blast. That game was AMAZING! Only prob was the stat engine wasn't the greatest. I used to love match up the old time teams and just listen to the results. Not much in the way of management though.

Found OOTP 2 after that but OOTP 3 was just weeks away from release so I waited and got that. Can't wait to roll with the new.

[Gastric ReFlux]

I found an a review article that stated FPS '98 used a physics based engine for the games played out on the screen. There wouldn't be any need to use the physics based one when doing quick sims, so maybe that was the difference?

[Godard]

I played APBA on the Apple IIe religiously, printing out and archiving each box score for the 1984 season of the balk.

I also loved Earl Weaver; a friend had it for the Amiga, so whenever I was over there I tried to sneak on for a game or two. Warming up the pitchers in the bullpen was the coolest thing to my young eyes.

[laspace3]

I will give my age away but I played a boardgame in the 60's when I was a kid called All-Star Baseball. I really cant remember who made it, Coleco?, but it was a fantastic game. Each player was represented by a round cardboard disk. On the disk it was divided out in indiviual sections. All the types of hits, homeruns,triples, etc. and all the outs, goundouts, strikeouts, etc.

This disk would be placed on the board which had a picture of a baseball field and stadium on it. On the board was a "spinner". The spinner was made so the player disk would slide under it and then you would spin it and where the pointer landed that would be the result for that at bat.

Had all the real players of that time, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, etc. The size of the indivual spaces on the disk were in relation to the type of hitter that card was. For instance Willie Mays homerun space was much larger than say Clementes.

I actually bought this game off e-bay a couple years ago. Im not sure how long this game was in actual production but I remember as a kid of going thru at least 3 different versions of it. Sorry for the long post but this game was very important to me as a kid as I played it constantly and entrenched my love for sports games that have lasted up to my present fascination with OOTP.

[Eric]

I started playing APBA back in 1979. I think nothing beats holding the cards of your lineup in your hands and being able to tell how good a player is by just looking at the play numbers on his cards. Lots of 1's means lots of homers. 42 meant hit by pitch. Whenever I played with a friend and somebody got beaned, we would throw our cards onto the playing field to simulate a bench clearing brawl.

The annoying thing is that the dice (a big red one and a small white one) could get stuck in the dice cup and I'll have to spend time prying it up. I guess that's the early version of the game locking up.

I also dabbled with Statis Pro and Extra Innings, but you never forget your first.

[pallison14]

Earl Weaver Baseball I/II

(And, yes, I thought I was the beez-kneez when I got the EWBB I Commish Disk Add-on). I had a league of the best teams of every franchise that I hand entered from the first edition of Total Baseball.

I also absolutely loved the stadium editor. Making crazy dimension ball parks (400 down the lines, 350 to center, 450 to the gaps) was always a kick.

From there it was the Tony LaRussa series, including Old Time Baseball. That was my first taste of online league, using Nick's utilities (awesome FA system, etc). Even ran a league for awhile before the game started to die off.

Played High Heat after that, which was fun for arcade value, but lacking for the front office appeal.

I thought Baseball Mogul was great, and that introduced me to OOTP, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Edit: Forgot Pete Rose Pennent Fever! It had a career-type mode, and used a ratings based system - which I thought was pretty cool. IIRC, all-time greats would occasinaly show up and could be signed as FAs.

[Nukester]

My favorite besides OOTP is probably Sammy Sosa HH2K1 or Old Time Baseball, although I probably spent more time playing MicroLeague Baseball on my IBM PCjr than any other baseball game (except OOTP). I really really liked APBA Broadcast Blast, but the cost was just to much (and you had to pay extra for a PC controled manager add-in I believe). This is only the PC games, as I have played alot of baseball board games also.

[cdheer]

Well, first was "Baseball" on the Magnavox Odyssey2 console. But that wasn't serious.

On my Apple II I then got Strategic Simulation's (a.k.a. SSI) "Computer Baseball." This game (which came out in 1980) sucked up a whole lot of my time. OK, almost no graphics to speak of, but it actually understood stats. You could warm up pitchers -- in fact, you had to. (But not too long!) You could visit the mound, and that would actually give your guys in the bullpen more time to get warmed up. Of course, if you made two trips in an inning, you had to make a switch.

It came with a smattering of teams, but I hunted down and entered the stats for all of my favorite Cubs teams. It didn't auto-update stats, so after every game I'd print the box score and then go edit my players' stats. Of course, it also didn't have talent or performance ratings...everything was stats-based. So, for example, if Thad Bosley had a hot streak, his average would shoot up to .420, and then level off. Still, it gave me a chance to pit Rick Sutcliffe, Dennis Eckersley, Ryno and the Penguin against the '27 Yankees or '80 Phillies.

They eventually released a PC version, but it was buggy and crap.

I also tried, in my Apple days, MicroLeague Baseball, Star League Baseball, Hardball, etc., but they were two arcade-y for me.

When I moved to the PC, I tried loads of them: La Russa, various flavors of Hardball, Radio Baseball, Earl Weaver, Big Hurt Baseball, Front Page Sports Baseball, Triple Play 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002, Triple Play Baseball, MVP Baseball 2003, Microsoft Baseball, assorted versions of High Heat, etc. Some were awful (Big Hurt Baseball...bwahahaha). Some were OK for arcade-y action (my favorite for that is still Triple Play 98). EW was great until I lost that damned wheel. I didn't care for High Heat. NONE of them (excepting EW) gave me that real uber-stats feeling I had when playing Computer Baseball.

Then I started discovering the more sim-oriented games. I found Baseball Mogul first. That was great as a GM sim, but I also liked being involved in-game. (I liked out-managing Casey, Computer Baseball's manager.) Besides, Mogul gets old pretty quickly once ou figure out the formula: trade your high-priced veterans for good prospects and cash. Cut your payroll down as far as you can. Lower ticket prices to keep the gate up. If a guy's coming up on an expensive renewal, let him go or (better yet) trade him for a young prospect. Build up your cash until you have piles of it. Build a bigger stadium (65K seating) so you can build up cash faster. Get a huge mound of money. By this point you should have some very good prospects that are ready for major league service. Now, go on spending spree. Buy every hot free agent there is. Run in the red for 4-5 years living off that pile of cash and win your titles.

Then I discovered PureSim, but it never quite "clicked" with me. I looked at Diamond Mind, but the cost held me off a bit. (By this time I had a wife who was growing ever more concerned at the cash being spent on sports simulations.) I found something at an outlet store called "Baseball Manager." "Own & Manage a Big League Baseball Team!" it screamed at me, and for $3.99, how could I argue? Turned out to be an old version of Mogul.

Then, when I was visiting relatives in the tiny town of Mattoon, IL, I spotted "Season Ticket Baseball 2003" at Wal-Mart. I bought it and fell in love instantly. It was like Computer Baseball reincarnated, only with an awesome financial engine, a career-mode type environment (year after year), a much better stats and abilities engine, minor leagues, a slick interface...man o man. I played it. And played it. And played it. Downloaded all the latest patches from Infogrames (what a goofy name). Went looking for roster updates and had some trouble finding them until I spotted a usenet post that said what I really had was OOTP4.

Bingbingbing. Downloaded rosters, pictures, etc. Oh baby.

It's been that ever since. I skipped OOTP5 for reasons that I cannot remember now (may have been wife-related; I cannot really remember). But I snagged ITP when it came out and my OOTP6 pre-order went in some time ago. Soon it will be time for me to build another Cub dynasty!

--chris

[Rowleyball]

This game might have been mentioned before, I forget its name. It used baseball cards, and the results depended on the player's stats on the back of his card (HR in last season and career AVG.). You roll two dice, look for the column that the hitter fits under (front side had 0-20 HR, back side had 21 or more HR), and then the result of the roll tells you what you get. For example, 7 was always a strikeout. Does anyone know what it was called?

Every Sunday my grandma would bring me a pack of baseball cards to make teams out of for it, and then for Christmas one year she got me a complete set (Fleer 1990 I think, they were bright yellow cards). Whenever I wasn't at practice, I was sitting on the floor in my room playing that game. I got the MLB schedule out of the newspaper and attempted to play out the entire season. I would keep score of a game, managing both teams, then go input the stats into a spreadsheet on the computer. I would also make league leaderboards, league records, etc. I only got through about the middle of April, after doing that for what seemed like the whole summer.

As far as other games, I played what I think was the first NES baseball game, Major League Baseball. That was always fun, except the little glitch that allowed you to go into the crowd to catch a foul ball.

OOTP4 was my first PC game. Before that I had various console games, none of which held my attention for very long.

[edm]

Rowley, I never played it, but that sounds like strat-o-matic baseball.

[Peo]

Statis Pro Baseball is the one I played most. Finding it here in Italy was almost impossible but when I finally found it I used to play all day until cards became almost unusable.

Earl Weaver Baseball
Baseball Mogul
Triple Play

[Stud Cantrell]

Syosset Tadpoles at Massapequa Wildcats. Wildcats down 17-16. Bottom of the 9th. Two outs. Man on third. I adjusted my jockstrap and stepped into the batter's box. Looking down the barrel of Pete "Stinky" Goldberg's dreaded underhand toss. I fell behind in the count - 1 ball, 2 strikes. Then came the fat pitch...

A mighty swing! And the *thwock* of my aluminum bat was heard by every parent in the bleachers as that cowhide skittered through the legs of the shortstop and dribbled into left field!

Jason "The Iron Kid" Farnham came in from third to tie. I rounded first and second. The third base coach, who was arrested a few years later on charges of lewd behavior with a minor, waved me through!

I was tearing towards home plate, my cowlick flapping in the cold October breeze. The catcher - one of those fat-freckly-Goonies types - stretched out his glove for the throw from the outfield....

And it sailed right over his head! I stepped on home plate and the game was ours! Wildcats win!!

After we shook hands with all the other players, the coach took us to McDonald's and I got a really cool toy with my Happy Meal.

Man, that was the best baseball game ever.

[Modern Relic]

Originally posted by dougaiton
Could you imagine how good OOTP would be with IGIball graphics? I'd actually weep.

I've been saying it for years. If OOTP had graphics and audio PBP I would most likely never sim another game.

Think of a hybrid of OOTP and High Heat. Hey, maybe we should find a way to "link" these two great games!

[Modern Relic]

Originally posted by Henry
Although I wouldn't be against a simplified graphic display (ala Puresim or early PC games) I think the future of OOTP is in the "radio" interface of PbP. There is a HUGE amount of room to improve in that area, and a true "radio" experience could be much better than watching pixels on the screen move around.

Henry

Do you mean like APBA-BBW did with Ernie Harwell?

[Nildo]

Originally posted by gordyhulten
Man, I love google.

I think I'm going to go buy a copy on Ebay, and see if I can make it run while I'm waiting for OOTP6. :-)

You can find the game at this site for free and completely legal!
EWBII
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=2286
EWB
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=2745

This is a great site overall, just remember to follow the rules and only download one at a time!

[Modern Relic]

A couple of guys have mentioned Old Time Baseball. If I'm not mistaken there is still someone making utilities for that game.

[dumrox]

Tony Larussa II then the High Heat Series.

Played my friend's All-Star Baseball board game quite a bit. His edition was mid-70's I think.

My older brothers (10 & 11 years older), had this mechanical game where the board was metal, the "ball" was an aspirin shaped magnetic disc and the bat was a plastic stick that came up through a hole in the field and rotated to swing. I think the fielders were painted on the board and if the ball ended up inside a fielder's circle the batter was out. The game was too beat up to work properly by the time I was old enough to care, but it's a little memory tucked away in some recess. Anybody know anything about that one? Would have probably been early to mid 60's.

[alinkens]

Microleague Baseball on the old Atari and then Front Page on the PC.

[OPi8]

EWBB 1.5

[davep1967]

Originally posted by johnnyshaka
http://s64.emuunlim.com/gameinfos/sp...wsbaseball.htm

The Sporting News Baseball game for my Commodore 64...absolutely loved that game!!! I used to keep track of stats game by game by hand. I would keep a pad of graph paper next to me and record every play. Man, I was a geek. Ah, those were the days.

That game was awsome!! I just downloaded it and started playing.

Can't believe some of those guys in the game are still playing. (J Franco, E. Burks.... )